ISO 9001 Standard Quality Manual Template

The quality manual is the necessary cornerstone for any business venturing out on the ISO 9001:2008 accreditation route as it exhibits top management’s determination to managing an useful quality management system. The quality manual is a type of most essential document which provides the right impression to clients, staff, inspectors and all the parties interested in your company, about your company’s efforts to satisfy all their clientele’s needs. People through your company will relate to it whenever they prefer to find the big picture of the system, or exactly what guidelines have been organized. You can save your valuable time and hard earned money with the quality manual template we offer you. If you really compile the quality manual, you will easily comprehend and apply ISO 9001:2008, which is one of the best methods to do so.By reading by the needs one-by-one and assigning each prerequisite a specific document, process or technique that exists within your company, you will get that over half of the demands have already been resolved. Quality manual makes the relation, between the process and the documents, an official one. Format and content Write your quality manual to ensure that it works for you, for your company and also the manner you work, it is totally your selection however generally make sure that it supports your organisation’s targets. The quality manual should not contain any confidential or proprietary information as it should be readily available to third party auditors and customers. You should also ensure that a clear distinction is made between the contents of the quality manual and the procedures. The quality manual identifies the intention of top management for the operation of the quality management system, whilst the operations explain how these kind of purposes are integrated. There are three things that must be included in the quality manual:

1. The probability of the quality management system such as details of the validation of any exclusions

2. For quality management system, the procedures should be standard or should be mentioned in them

3. A explanation of the discussion between the procedures of the quality management system Who will use your Quality Manual and why?

In general, the clients and the prospective customers need it in order to know how your company system meets their requirements. If your quality manual includes two pages, it may not motivate trust that your system is strong enough to be an useful quality management system. Customers and Clients want assurance that you know how to plan, implement, and control the processes that affect their products or service delivery. The third party inspectors will b interested to know how your company meets their standard needs and also if perhaps the quality management system is useful in accomplishing your organization’s targets. Auditors will use the quality manual as a guide to help out discover and also form the purpose facts that they have to find in exhibition of your company’s compliance with the standard. Internal inspectors can review and inspect their own company for their needs rather than referring to standard documents from external sources. Management ought to be able to determine, from the manual, how the numerous processes and also systems have interaction, and at a high level what policies and methods have been established to maintain and control the processes and systems . The quality manual is usually presented to fresh recruits to familiarize themselves with the organization’s quality management system and also the manuals are often used as an in-house training resource. Most importantly, your quality manual ought to not sit on a dirty shelf or be hidden in an obscure position on the computer network; it is an active and powerful document that requires coverage in order for it to grow and also improve. Please click on the links below to learn more about Quality Manual Templates and view some free examples.

ISO 9000 Standards Document Control System

The ISO 9000 Standards requires that a documented procedure be established to define the controls needed.

This requirement means that the methods for performing the various activities required to control different types of documents should be defined and documented.

Although the ISO 9000 standards implies that a single procedure is required, should you choose to produce several different procedures for handling the different types of documents it is doubtful that any auditor would deem this noncompliant. Where this might be questionable is in cases where there is no logical reason for such differences and where merging the procedures and settling on a best practice would improve efficiency and effectiveness.

Documents are recorded information and the purpose of the document control process is to firstly ensure the appropriate information is available where needed and secondly to prevent the inadvertent use of invalid
information. At each stage of the process are activities to be performed that may require documented procedures in order to ensure consistency and predictability. Procedures may not be necessary for each stage in the process.

IMPLEMENTATION OF ISO 9001 STANDARD IN EDUCATION

The economy has already met with various endeavours and concepts to build an effective quality management system. From the historical point of view, the most important ones are Deming Prize (1950), followed by Malcom Baldrige National Award (1987) and

international standards pertaining to ISO 9000 (1987) family. The implementation of this last standard grows continuously, either in Europe or in the world. In the period from 2001 to 2003, there was a slight stagnation, which was the consequence of the organisations having to adapt to the requests of ISO 9001:2000 edition of the standard. Croatia also actively participates in this trend, which show that at the end of 2004, organisations were certified, of which 970 of them were from Croatia.

The economy has already met with various endeavours and concepts to build aneffective quality management system. From the historical point of view, the most importantones are Deming Prize (1950), followed by Malcom Baldrige National Award (1987) andinternational standards pertaining to ISO 9000 (1987) family. The implementation of thislast standard grows continuously, either in Europe or in the world, as shown in the picture1. In the period from 2001 to 2003, there was a slight stagnation, which was theconsequence of the organisations having to adapt to the requests of ISO 9001:2008 editionof the standard. Croatia also actively participates in this trend, as illustrated by figures fromthe table 2, which show that at the end of 2004, 670,399 organisations were certified, ofwhich 970 of them were from Croatia.

The implementation of the stated standard in educational activities took a somewhat slower pace. Trends in Croatia do not completely follow the World ones . The 2002 and 2003 stagnation, which, as already mentioned, was mainly caused by transfer from one issue of the standard to the next one, had no particular impact to Croatia, partially because the data for Croatia includes standards from both the previous and the new issue of the ISO 9001 standard.

Aligning At ISO 9001 Standard Requirements

In conformity with the explanations of international series of standards elaborated in the 2008 year, the

implementation of QMS having the requires of ISO 9001 standard on basis (included in this series) can be done

in every kind of organization, indifferent of its field of activity , size or number of personnel. This means that

SMEs can also align at these requires. Practically, this thing is not so easy accessible to all SMEs, due to their

limited resources. The success of this action depends on more elements, mainly, the following ones:

· Strong commitment and decision of top management;

· Adopting an organization structure accordingly both with business plan of SME, and with the

requirements and guides of standards from quality management field, too.

This means that SME (sector in continuously development in Romania starting from 1990) can align to

these requirements. Practical, this is not easy to aces by all SMEs, because of their limited resources.

The success of this demarche depends on several elements, mainly, the following:

· The decision and the strong commitment of the top management ;

· Adopting an organizational structure according to the business plan of SMEs, but also with the

requirements and the directions of the norm/standards in the quality management field.

· Accurate planning of the implementation project of a quality management system

· Allocation of the m a t erial, financial and human resources necessary for developing and

maintaining of the system;

· Suitable training of the personnel of the organization for the documentation and implementation of the system, but also for its supervising;

· Maintaining of an efficient communication and collaboration with business partners, first, with the

suppliers and the clients of SMEs, but also with other interested parts, including their own

personnel;

And one more remark: the success of a quality management system in a SME depends on endowment degree and on technological level of the equipments and working and controlling installation of the processes.

In conformity with the explanations of international series of standards elaborated in the 2000 year, theimplementation of QMS having the requires of ISO 9001 standard on basis (included in this series) can be donein every kind of organization, indifferent of its field of activity , size or number of personnel. This means thatSMEs can also align at these requires. Practically, this thing is not so easy accessible to all SMEs, due to theirlimited resources. The success of this action depends on more elements, mainly, the following ones:· Strong commitment and decision of top management;· Adopting an organization structure accordingly both with business plan of SME, and with therequirements and guides of standards from quality management field, too.This means that SME (sector in continuously development in Romania starting from 1990) can align tothese requirements. Practical, this is not easy to aces by all SMEs, because of their limited resources. Thesuccess of this demarche depends on several elements, mainly, the following:· The decision and the strong commitment of the top management ;· Adopting an organizational structure according to the business plan of SMEs, but also with therequirements and the directions of the norm/standards in the quality management field.· Accurate planning of the implementation project of a quality management system· Allocation of the m a t erial, financial and human resources necessary for developing andmaintaining of the system;· Suitable training of the personnel of the organization for the documentation and implementation ofthe system, but also for its supervising;· Maintaining of an efficient communication and collaboration with business partners, first, with thesuppliers and the clients of SMEs, but also with other interested parts, including their ownpersonnel;And one more remark: the success of a quality management system in a SME depends on endowmentdegree and on technological level of the equipments and working and controlling installation of the processes.

A transparent quality management system, well conceived and applied, with adequate trained and motivated personnel, will be efficient and if technological level of endowments (working, supervising, measuring and monitoring equipments of the processes and product, working environment and infrastructure) will be comparable with the level of endowment of the top firms in the same activity area, as of the organization we refer to.

So, adopting a quality management system based on the requirements of the ISO 9001 standard is a strategic decision of the top management of an organization, much more for the management of SME that first of all has to analyse very well all the necessary resources, to put in balance both the necessary costs of the implementation and sustaining in function of a quality management system and the benefits brought, then to decide advisedly. Developing a quality management system gives both direct benefits and a contribution at the cost and risk management, being important not only for organization but also for the satisfaction of its clients and other interested parts.

The decision of designing and implementation of a quality management system in SME is influenced by proposed objectives, by the demand of the market, by products and services offered, as well as by objectives tendency of developing and the continuously improving of the performances of the processes of any organization.

A quality management system contains two essential elements. First, the most critical, refers to human resources and the other necessary resources for constant delivery of the adequate products and services to the client. Second refers to the existence of “documented quality management system” that is, usually, defined by documented policies, objectives, plans, processes, procedures and fabrication standards. The documented quality management system has to reflect the planning and carrying on the activities, made by SME. Both for the audit reported to the ISO 9001 standard’s requirements but also for improving activities, will need to generate adequate registrations to document the effective performance and to demonstrate the concordance.

Top management of SME has to be aware that the implementation of a quality management system according to this standard has to be approached as a project, to which are assigned resources and which has to be managed by a defined schedule.

First step is represented by defining the objectives of the schedule with an accent on those that will bring benefits for SME. For each objective must be defined the way in which will be measured his achievement, as well as the reference level. Schedule must also establish:

· An identification, documentation and continue improving system of SME’s processes;

· Stages that must be carried out for achieving the objectives regarding to the quality of the product and for long-term improving of a quality management system of SME;

After establishing the objectives, the next decision of the top management of SME refers to the type of approaching that will appeal to [3].

There are two ways of approaching:

a) to design the whole quality management system and then to be implemented;

b) to evaluate the processes and to appeal to improving techniques to build the system step by step, starting from existing elements.

The advantage of designing the whole quality management system is represented by obtaining a distinct structure, the main disadvantage being the tendency of a theoretical approach, separated from the realities and practices of SMEs. The performances of the personnel can also suffer because of the necessity to apply simultaneous a great number of new procedures.

The essential advantage of step by step approach is that if through evaluation of processes are determined both the adequate practices and the less acceptable, the efforts can be focused on those areas that ensure a maximum benefit. This approach has the disadvantage of the tendency to achieve a quality management system that is not so well structured and so is more difficult to understand and to apply by the personnel of SME.

The optimum approach represents a combination of the two variants. So, initially it is good to be established a general structure of the quality management system and then to be established frame models for documentation of the processes. Implementation activities will have in view identification and solving the problems and then the improving key processes of SME.

Indifferent the approaching way, top management of SME can decide if the conceiving and implementation project of the quality management system will be carried out through internal forces, or will be carried out external appealing to a specialised advising. In case they appeal to an advising firm, must exist an abiding collaboration between the two firm and a well tuned up contract to which will be affixed a plain schedule, with responsibilities and achievement terms.

Designing and implementation project of the quality management system cannot ensure solving all the problems. Changing the culture of an organization takes time and patience. Project must be accomplished through a well defined series of phases, with well established terms and with objectives that can be reached.